Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:57:10.703Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Systematic Tail Risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2016

Maarten R. C. van Oordt*
Affiliation:
[email protected], Government of Canada, Bank of Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0G9, Canada
Chen Zhou
Affiliation:
[email protected], [email protected], Economics and Research Division, De Nederlandsche Bank, 1000AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

We test for the presence of a systematic tail risk premium in the cross section of expected returns by applying a measure of the sensitivity of assets to extreme market downturns, the tail beta. Empirically, historical tail betas help predict the future performance of stocks in extreme market downturns. During a market crash, stocks with historically high tail betas suffer losses that are approximately 2 to 3 times larger than their low-tail-beta counterparts. However, we find no evidence of a premium associated with tail betas. The theoretically additive and empirically persistent tail betas can help assess portfolio tail risks.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ang, A., and Bekaert, G.. “International Asset Allocation with Regime Shifts.” Review of Financial Studies, 15 (2002), 11371187.Google Scholar
Ang, A., and Chen, J.. “Asymmetric Correlations of Equity Portfolios.” Journal of Financial Economics, 63 (2002), 443494.Google Scholar
Ang, A.; Chen, J.; and Xing, Y.. “Downside Risk.” Review of Financial Studies, 19 (2006), 11911239.Google Scholar
Ang, A.; Hodrick, R.; Xing, Y.; and Zhang, X.. “The Cross-Section of Volatility and Expected Returns.” Journal of Finance, 61 (2006), 259299.Google Scholar
Arzac, E., and Bawa, V.. “Portfolio Choice and Equilibrium in Capital Markets with Safety-First Investors.” Journal of Financial Economics, 4 (1977), 277288.Google Scholar
Bali, T.; Cakici, N.; and Whitelaw, R.. “Hybrid Tail Risk and Expected Stock Returns.” Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 4 (2014), 206246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bali, T.; Demirtas, K.; and Levy, H.. “Is There an Intertemporal Relation between Downside Risk and Expected Returns?” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 44 (2009), 883909.Google Scholar
Bawa, V., and Lindenberg, E.. “Capital Market Equilibrium in a Mean-Lower Partial Moment Framework.” Journal of Financial Economics, 5 (1977), 189200.Google Scholar
Carhart, M. “On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance.” Journal of Finance, 52 (1997), 5782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cholette, L., and Lu, C.. “The Market Premium for Dynamic Tail Risk.” Working Paper, University of Stavanager and National Chengchi University (2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, K., and Titman, S.. “Evidence on the Characteristics of Cross Sectional Variation in Stock Returns.” Journal of Finance, 52 (1997), 133.Google Scholar
De Bondt, W., and Thaler, R.. “Does the Stock Market Overreact?” Journal of Finance, 40 (1985), 793805.Google Scholar
De Jonghe, O. “Back to the Basics in Banking? A Micro-Analysis of Banking System Stability.” Journal of Financial Intermediation, 19 (2010), 387417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dittmar, R. “Nonlinear Pricing Kernels, Kurtosis Preference, and Evidence from the Cross Section of Equity Returns.” Journal of Finance, 57 (2002), 369403.Google Scholar
Embrechts, P.; De Haan, L.; and Huang, X.. “Modelling Multivariate Extremes.” In Extremes and Integrated Risk Management, Embrechts, P., ed. London, UK: RISK Books (2000), 5967.Google Scholar
Embrechts, P.; Klüppelberg, C.; and Mikosch, T.. Modelling Extremal Events: For Insurance and Finance. Heidelberg, DE: Springer (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fama, E., and French, K.. “Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds.” Journal of Financial Economics, 33 (1993), 356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fama, E., and French, K.. “Dissecting Anomalies.” Journal of Finance, 63 (2008), 16531678.Google Scholar
Feller, W. An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, Vol. 2. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons (1971).Google Scholar
Gervais, S.; Kaniel, R.; and Mingelgrin, D.. “The High-Volume Return Premium.” Journal of Finance, 56 (2001), 877919.Google Scholar
Harlow, W., and Rao, R.. “Asset Pricing in a Generalized Mean-Lower Partial Moment Framework: Theory and Evidence.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 24 (1989), 285311.Google Scholar
Harvey, C., and Siddique, A.. “Conditional Skewness in Asset Pricing Tests.” Journal of Finance, 55 (2000), 12631295.Google Scholar
Hill, B. “A Simple General Approach to Inference about the Tail of a Distribution.” Annals of Statistics, 3 (1975), 11631174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, W.; Liu, Q.; Rhee, G.; and Wu, F.. “Extreme Downside Risk and Expected Stock Returns.” Journal of Banking & Finance, 36 (2012), 14921502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibragimov, R., and Walden, J.. “The Limits of Diversification When Losses May Be Large.” Journal of Banking & Finance, 31 (2007), 25512569.Google Scholar
Jansen, D., and de Vries, C.. “On the Frequency of Large Stock Returns: Putting Booms and Busts into Perspective.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 73 (1991), 1824.Google Scholar
Jegadeesh, N. “Evidence of Predictable Behavior of Security Returns.” Journal of Finance, 45 (1990), 881898.Google Scholar
Karolyi, G., and Stulz, R.. “Why Do Markets Move Together? An Investigation of U.S.-Japan Stock Return Comovements.” Journal of Finance, 51 (1996), 951986.Google Scholar
Kelly, B., and Jiang, H.. “Tail Risk and Asset Prices.” Review of Financial Studies, 27 (2014), 28412871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, M., and Wadhwani, S.. “Transmission of Volatility between Stock Markets.” Review of Financial Studies, 3 (1990), 533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraus, A., and Litzenberger, R.. “Skewness Preference and the Valuation of Risk Assets.” Journal of Finance, 31 (1976), 10851100.Google Scholar
Levhari, D., and Levy, H.. “The Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Investment Horizon.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 59 (1977), 92104.Google Scholar
Longin, F., and Solnik, B.. “Is the Correlation in International Equity Returns Constant: 1960–1990?” Journal of International Money and Finance, 14 (1995), 326.Google Scholar
Longin, F., and Solnik, B.. “Extreme Correlation of International Equity Markets.” Journal of Finance, 56 (2001), 649676.Google Scholar
Loretan, M., and Phillips, P.. “Testing the Covariance Stationarity of Heavy-Tailed Time Series: An Overview of the Theory with Applications to Several Financial Datasets.” Journal of Empirical Finance, 1 (1994), 211248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandelbrot, B. “The Variation of Certain Speculative Prices.” Journal of Business, 36 (1963), 394419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newey, W., and West, K.. “A Simple, Positive Semi-Definite, Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix.” Econometrica, 55 (1987), 703708.Google Scholar
Newey, W., and West, K.. “Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation.” Review of Economic Studies, 61 (1994), 631653.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, A. “On the Out-of-Sample Importance of Skewness and Asymmetric Dependence for Asset Allocation.” Journal of Financial Econometrics, 2 (2004), 130168.Google Scholar
Poon, S.; Rockinger, M.; and Tawn, J.. “Extreme Value Dependence in Financial Markets: Diagnostics, Models, and Financial Implications.” Review of Financial Studies, 17 (2004), 581610.Google Scholar
Post, T., and Versijp, P.. “Multivariate Tests for Stochastic Dominance Efficiency of a Given Portfolio.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 42 (2007), 489515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, K.; Price, B.; and Nantell, T.. “Variance and Lower Partial Moment Measures of Systematic Risk: Some Analytical and Empirical Results.” Journal of Finance, 37 (1982), 843855.Google Scholar
Ramchand, L., and Susmel, R.. “Volatility and Cross Correlation across Major Stock Markets.” Journal of Empirical Finance, 5 (1998), 397416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, A. “Safety First and the Holding of Assets.” Econometrica, 20 (1952), 431449.Google Scholar
Rubinstein, M. “The Fundamental Theorem of Parameter-Preference Security Valuation.” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 8 (1973), 6169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, J. “Market Crashes, Market Booms and the Cross-Section of Expected Returns.” Working Paper, New York University (2006).Google Scholar
Telser, L. “Safety First and Hedging.” Review of Economic Studies, 23 (1955), 116.Google Scholar
Van Oordt, M., and Zhou, C.. “Estimating Systematic Risk under Extremely Adverse Market Conditions.” Bank of Canada Staff Working Paper Series No. 2016-22 (2016).Google Scholar